Hunan University (HNU) was recently invited to participate in the Sino-Japanese University Forum 2016 held in Beijing. Presidents from 12 prominent Chinese universities and 12 Japanese universities jointly attended the forum, including Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Lanzhou University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Xiamen University, as well as Tokyo University, Kyoto University, and Waseda University.

The Sino-Japanese University Forum, held in turn in China and Japan, was sponsored by Mr. KazukiOkimura, former president of the Japan Science and Technology Agency and 2015 winner of Chinese Government Friendship award. It is an important scientific and educational platform between Chinese and Japanese universities .

This was the seventh session of the forum, themed with “Research-education Integration; Synergetic Development; Promoting World-class Universities Construction”. Presidents at present made in-depth discussions on research-education synergy, education quality, self-dependent research, paper publishing, patent application, and internationalization. HNU President Duan Xianzhong addressed on the topic of “Exploration and Thinking on Building a First-class University”. He reviewed HNU’s development from Yuelu Academy built over one thousand years ago to the modern institution of higher education today, and introduced its exploration in building itself a first-class university in response to the state strategy and demands.